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The Myra Bradwell Fund

On March 25, 2008, the Women’s Law Project launched a new fundraising effort entitled the Myra Bradwell Fund.

The Fund honors Myra Bradwell who, in 1869 after reading law with her husband, Judge James Bradwell, passed the test for admission to the Chicago Bar. She was denied admission by the Illinois Supreme Court on the grounds that she was married. She took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld the Illinois decision on the basis that the nature which belongs to the female sex makes it unfit for certain occupations of civil life. Between 1868 and 1885 when the Illinois Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision and directed that Ms. Bradwell be granted a license to practice law, Ms. Bradwell published the Chicago Legal News.

Supreme Court“While women today are accorded a wider variety of freedoms than was Ms. Bradwell,” said Carol Tracy, Executive Director of the Women’s Law Project, “we at the Law Project see every day the harmful and hurtful ways that women are abused, held back, and denied full respect in employment, sports, health care, and the courts.”

The Myra Bradwell Fund offers donors the opportunity to contribute $1000 or more for the Law Project’s annual fund. Contribution levels are as follows:


      • Counsel $1,000 - $2,499
      • Judge $2,500 - $4,999
      • Associate Justice $5,000 - $9,999
      • Justice $10,000 – $24,999
      • Chief Justice $25,000 and above

Annual membership in the Myra Bradwell Fund is a leadership commitment to the work of the Law Project. It means no less than preserving and enhancing our ability to defend and advance women’s rights in critical areas of reproductive justice, violence against women, gender equity, family law/family court reform, economic justice/health care reform, and civic engagement.

For more information please contact us at info@womenslawproject.org.  We invite inquiries on planned gifts and gifts of stocks.